Device manufacturers develop and test new designs on a regular basis. For example, a manufacturer may develop a new chip or integrated circuit every year or two. In addition to hardware changes, developers may develop new firmware (i.e., the software that manages the device) on an ongoing basis, providing the device with new capabilities and working to fix any bugs discovered in previous versions of the firmware. As new hardware is developed or new versions of the associated firmware are developed, the designers typically attempt to develop plans to test the new hardware or firmware before releasing the product to consumers. The test plans are developed to ensure that any changes to the device or firmware have been implemented according to a specification developed prior to the design to ensure that the device works as intended and that the changes to the firmware and/or hardware have not introduced any new issues.
Sometimes these design changes may introduce new hugs to the device. These bugs may be difficult to detect, requiring specific conditions to be present in order for the bug to be detected. Other times, the bugs may be intermittent, such as the result of noise from electro-magnetic interference (EMI). Typically, designers develop test protocols to attempt to discover and fix bugs, but the test protocols cannot reproduce every single condition a device may encounter and, therefore, test protocols are limited in terms of which bugs can be discovered. Test plans are typically run for a set number of iterations using a set number of conditions before the device and/or firmware is validated and certified to be released. However, when the device is released, some of the bugs may not have been discovered due to the limited nature of the tests performed. Thus, there is a need for addressing this issue and/or other issues associated with the prior art.